Does following up with customers make you feel like this? Follow up automatically with PEP Cloud's new EMAIL CAMPAIGN feature! Send an eBid Go to the FOLLOW UP tab. Apply a campaign. You just scheduled follow-up emails! You're all done. (Really.) Don't be frustrated. Be AWESOME! Yup, that’s right – soon you’ll be able to automate the process of following up with customers! It seems like a small thing, but following up with customers is an easy way to boost sales and provide great customer service. It’s also time-consuming. It’s one of those tasks that we all know we should do, but there’s never time enough in the day. Enter PEP Cloud’s NEW EMAIL CAMPAIGN FEATURE! An email campaign is a series of emails that you’ll schedule to send at set intervals in the future. There will be a new “Follow Up” tab on the eBid page; that’s where you’ll schedule the campaign. We’re going to give you a simple 5-day campaign consisting of 2 emails. You can change or add to this, or you can make your own. Also new: AUTOMATED “THANK YOU” NOTE Send your customers a personal note when they accept an eBid without stopping what you’re doing! This is another tool to make following up with customers easy. You’ll be able to configure a thank-you note directly in your eBid templates. Over the next few weeks we’re going to get you more details about these features and some tips on setting up an email campaign. You can get a jumpstart and plan your campaigns while we put the finishing touches on the...

Running a small business can be a lonely job. So can working for a small business. We’ve talked about this before (read the post). The topic was brought fresh to mind last week when I had a problem I couldn’t solve; no one could solve it for me or even really help. I spent the better part of 2 days feeling frustrated, unproductive, and alone before forcing myself to DO SOMETHING ELSE. And do you know what happened? Completing another task – being productive! – gave me the motivational boost I needed to tackle the original problem and actually make some progress. Motivation is hard to come by when you feel like you’re not getting anywhere. In light of my recent experience, I did a little research about tips and techniques to get motivated and solve problems at work (but really, these can apply to anything in life). 3 WAYS TO GET MOTIVATED AND SOLVE PROBLEMS 1. Take a break from whatever you’re stuck on. Do something else – anything else: complete a different task, go for a run, clean your car. Give yourself a chance to feel productive and engage your brain in a positive way. (Source: personal experience. Also, Google and other tech companies have proven that this method leads to great problem-solving.) 2. Spotlight the positive. Take 2 minutes at the end of each day to make a list (mental or physical) of all the things you DID accomplish during the day, however small they might seem. This is part of my list from yesterday: balanced business accounts, emptied dishwasher, wrote emails, walked the dogs, got...